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GAZ Volga Siber: Russia’s very own Sebring

Model of mediocrity failed to take the world by storm

February 16, 2016

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Deep in the depths of 2008, a human mind produced this thought, or something similar: “How about a Chrysler Sebring, but built in Russia!” presumably, a whole bunch of other people had a positive reaction to that very bad idea and the result was the GAZ Volga Siber.

The Siber could have been an off-road monstrosity combining a Russian military truck and the Jeep Wrangler. Or it could have been a Russian-produced, Viper-based track car for destroying the roads of the former Soviet Union. The Siber was a licensed copy of Chrysler’s overwhelmingly mediocre Sebring sedan.

Fun fact: No one actually remembers buying a Sebring, and Chrysler won’t admit to having built them. Americans would wake up to a Sebring in their driveway and loudly curse the cruel universe that subjected them to this fate. And if Americans could be subjected to that kind of suffering, why not the Rooskies?

And so, there are photos from 2008 that prove Russian President/Bond villain/IRL villain Vladimir Putin and heads of industry from Michigan convened at a GAZ factory in Russia to introduce the world to a new car they’d hate. The production line for the Siber was modeled exactly after Chrysler’s line. This slickly produced promo video shows the plant cranking out Sibers. (If only Stalin could see these robots, robotin’ up these cars in the absence of workers. –ED)

GAZ had plans to produce 100,000 Sibers and fill the streets of Russia with a car that generated fond feelings for the departed LeBaron. GAZ counted every Sebring-chicken before it hatched because they (fortunately) made less than 10,000 Sibers between 2008 and 2010. Those Sibers rolled off production lines with a 2-liter 4-cylinder that made a surprisingly paltry (even by 2008 Chrysler standards) 141 hp.

In the grand tradition of developing-world auto manufacturing, the Siber looked dated and sad before the factory paint even dried, though valiant effort at a Russifying refresh was undertaken by British design studio UltraMotive (author’s note: I have not been able to find anything about UltraMotive. I’m not sure they exist). The only non-cosmetic difference between the Sebring and the Siber was an upgraded suspension that’s presumably better suited for Vladimir Putin’s ice palace terrible Russian roads.

Thankfully, the unholy Sebring clone failed to take the world by storm. In fact, even the factory workers who built it seemed to hate the thing, as seen in this monumentally depressing video.

No one, not even the Russians, wanted a Russian copy of your uncle from Florida’s Chrysler.